Along with this extraordinary growth we’ve been thrilled to watch a thriving marketplace of commercial themes drive innovation and quality in theme design while producing an amazing variety of theme choices for self-hosted WordPress sites.

Now we want to bring the same level of theme choices to the WordPress.com community—it’s time to give you a chance at not only more themes, but a chance to showcase your site with beautiful designs that will blow you away with their style and quality.

I am proud to introduce the very first two premium themes on WordPress.com: Headlines and Shelf.

Example of the news-oriented Headlines front page layout.

Headlines is a sophisticated magazine theme from WooThemes with a Featured Post slideshow, multiple menus, and 15 beautiful color schemes. It’s available now for a one-time price of $45.

Example of Shelf

Shelf, from The Theme Foundry, is a unique tumblelog style theme featuring a fluid and responsive design. It’s available now for a one-time price of $68.

Learn all about these two themes by visiting our Theme Showcase, or purchase and activate a theme by going to Appearance → Themes in your dashboard—look for the “Premium” link next to “Recently Added.”

Along with the distinctive features and a gorgeous design purchasing a premium theme like Shelf or Headlines for your WordPress.com site also gives you full access to dedicated support on the WordPress.com forums. The premium themes forum there will be accessible only to site owners who’ve purchased a theme.

We hope to expand the collection of themes on WordPress.com in a big way in 2011. Look for a significant number of both free and premium themes coming your way this year. And, thank you to our WordPress.com community for helping the Automattic network reach the mark of 500 million unique visitors per month. We couldn’t do it without you!

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I’m glad you decided to do this, along with adding new themes, having paid ones just gives us all more choice. I love the variety of Tumblr themes available but that site is just class-less, the only thing WP was missing was theme variety, and hopefully this move will meet that need!

The Headlines is friggin’ awesome! That’s the thing I was looking for. Maybe except for the columns – I’d love a theme like that one, but with the possibility to display front page post as in Inuit Type (side by side).

Seriously considering buying it! Cost is not that big (at least in my country), but I won’t be happy if you release a better one in a week or two. I’d rather pay some more for a lifetime subscription with limitation of using 1, but freely choosable, premium theme for 1 blog per account.

Premium themes is a great idea, and since the prices are one-time, not annual, they seem very reasonable. The “Shelf” theme puts a whole new spin on blogging. I thought WordPress was great when I started using it in 2007, but it just keeps getting better.

I am totally amazed by these two new themes. As John Hayden just said, since they are just one-time fees and not annual, the price is very reasonable. I just wonder if we will have a whole bunch of Headlines them, for instance, all looking the same, except for different blog names. I also wonder if there is a way to make them unique?

I also noticed when I tried it out, that “Featuring” blocks the headline title of each section as it passes through.

I am seriously thinking of getting Headlines for my new blog, News, Views, and Gurus.

Many heartfelt thanks to WP and the staff. The WP blogs are interesting, the theme designs are fabulous, and it’s relatively easy to operate one of these blogs. AND it’s all free. Your efforts are appreciated!

The Headlines theme is one theme design that I’ve been waiting for a long time, a magazine style that suits my blog. Unfortunately, when this theme finally show up, I must pay 45 USD for this. I know lot of free themes are available, but they can’t be compared with this Headlines theme. If I buy this theme, and in the future there is newer one, I cannot switch unless I pay again. What a waste.

I know Shelf supports custom menus, but does anyone know where they appear on the site when they’re enabled? Anyone seen an example? That’s the one big hangup I have before pulling the trigger. Thanks.

I’d have to agree with those who have commented that the price seems a bit out of line…expensive software (themes) for “free” sites doesn’t exactly make sense to my brain… For not much more money one could have a self-hosted site with lots more options and control. This also raises a question about what sort of support commitment is being offered to those who buy one of these themes. I’ve experienced the frustration of putting a lot of work into a blog only to have the theme (or plug-in) developer disappear or decide to stop supporting it… I accept that as part of the system, but I would not be happy if I spent $68 for something that became useless in a year or two.

Reading the backstory on ThemeShaper also helped me to understand why this idea, which has actually been brewing for quite some time, is now finally possible. Awesome! Looking forward to seeing lots more new themes, both premium and free.

These new themes are great. As someone who manages multiple blogs and authors all posts across multiple industries of my clients, I am anxiously awaiting more themes with author anonymity and plug in availibilty. Consider adding author info as a search term, or a highlighted feature and of course, consider adding the use of plug-ins 😉

I like the new themes but what about something really cool for those of us who like black background themes? I would love to see more themes that rotate your featured or newest posts with a photo on the front page. I love that feature but can’t find it in themes. I would also love to see a widget that rotates the photos in the image widget. Thanks WordPress Today’s Truffles loves you guys.